The Viking's did not irradiate Old English, a sign of their limited impact compared to the earlier Anglo Saxon invasion. But remnants of their influence are still visible in modern English. For example, north and east of the line that demarcates the Danelaw, you are likely to hear bairn instead of child, which is more closely related to the Danish barn. Image Credit: ScienceNordic, based on an original in: Word Maps. A dialect Atlas of England.

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by Archaeology Newsroom

2112'1813:24

The Viking invasion was not as massive as the Anglo-Saxon one

According to a new study on recent research

Recent research indicates that the invaders who had the
worst impact on England were the Anglo-Saxons, rather than the Vikings, as it is
widely thought.

The Anglo-Saxons came from Denmark, Northern Germany, the
Netherlands and Friesland and carried
out a more systematic colonisation than the Vikings, who were pirates and
performed numerous migrations. Also, the Viking Age probably started earlier
than 793 BCE as it has been thought, probably around 400 BCE. An examination of
recent research and various sources indicates this more systematic
colonisation.

One of the factors examined was language and how this was
affected by the Viking Old Norse. It seems that the latter had no impact on Old
English of the Anglo Saxons in the 9th and 10th centuries. Also, after the
arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th and 6th centuries, there is no Celtic
language in England, as it was wiped out by the invaders. Only a few Celtic
words were used in the Old English of the Anglo Saxons.

A close linguistic examination of the three languages,
Celtic, Old Norse and Old English, highlights the minor impact Old Norse of the
Vikings had in Old English and the eradication of Celtic by the Anglo-Saxons.
The two closely related languages of the Anglo-Saxons and Vikings led to a
simplification of English.

This process of language change has been a common phenomenon
in other areas of the world. The language is simplified so that people would
carry on with trade and communication when two different languages met, leading
to the pidginisation, for instance, in old English and French colonies in Africa,
the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Large-scale DNA analyses in the modern British indicates
that the impact of Viking immigration was not as massive as the arrival of the
Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century.

A view supported by many scholars is that the Anglo-Saxons
effected a type of apartheid against the local people who spoke Celtic between
the 5th and 9th centuries. Another view is that the Anglo-Saxons performed some
sort of ethnic cleansing, since the Celtic culture and language only survived
in Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

The well-oganised Anglo-Saxon England was harder to conquer
and the Vikings most likely married into Anglo-Saxon families, thus their
children were often raised by Anglo-Saxon servants. This means that these
children adopted their language to an extent. This meddling led to the English
of today, rather than a language more similar to Frisian or Danish which would have
been the case if the Anglo-Saxons or the Vikings had won the language clash.

Place names also confirm the presence of Scandinavian and
Anglo-Saxon settlements in England. The place names in England indicate that
the Scandinavians settled on land that was more marginal, before the fight for
land increased.

All the above, however, does not mean that the Vikings had a
less significant impact on life in England in the 9th century. The Anglo-Saxons
came really close to being overrun by the Scandinavians. When king Alfred
managed to win the battle of Ethandune and established his rule in Wessex, he
saved Wessex and perhaps even the English language. A line was then drawn
across the country, with king Alfred settling to the South and the Danes
towards the Northeast. Everything behind this border was the Danelaw. Dialects
in the entire of England today signify the dominance of Danish language east of
this line.

With the rebuilding of monasteries and schools and the use of English instead of Latin for further education Alfred’s policies of identity against the Danes saved the English language as it had survived up to that point. He also initiated the first translation of Bede’s The History of English.

Therefore, all the evidence from written and archaeological
sources indicate that the Viking invasion was not as massive as the Anglo-Saxon
invasion, 400 years earlier. Their linguistic, material and genetic footprint
on England is limited only to a part of the country. The Anglo-Saxons came to comprise
up to 40 percent of the population in England at the time while the Vikings did
not come close to that. Finally, the Anglo-Saxons did not mix with local people
as was the case with the Vikings.

To conclude, the period when piracy, migration, and ethnic cleansing, was predominant, was not initiated by the Vikings, but much earlier.

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